Current top-notch spellbooks?

[Cnoedel]

So I know that this game is farely balanced, nevertheless i think there are a few premium builds, feel free to discuss, to add to or remove any of my suggetions:

1. Control Wizard - has been strong since release, adding wizards tower just made this build go through the roof!

2. Beastmasters Swarmimals - His ability to cast additional animals is super strong and will bring you a lot of troubles! Tanglevine the mage and hunt him down!

3. Curselock -  Curses are VERY strong in masses and the male warlocks ability to recycle them is badass!


Honorable mentions:

Adramelech warlock can be quite awesome since she may try a demon swarm with wildfire imps or just praise the lord of fire and go for the throat! Had a lot of fun with her and i see her as being a very good mage!

The Forcemaster might be good too, but I am just not good enough to play her and there are many mages that play nonliving creatures, which are not affected by sleep

Necromancer may swarm good too and can choose between skellies and zombies, which I love, but he is missing an alternative winning option (Sardonyx is not a threat x.x)

I have not played the druid yet so i do not know how good she is and what she is able to do but she seems too slow to appear on this list, furthermore she has a big disadvantage since she is super vunerable to fire!

[silverclawgrizzly]

The necromancer is my secondary and I honestly win a lot of the time with the slow burn. Bait them with the Idol of Pestilence, then put a Poison Counter on them and curse them with ongoing damage. He's not as good as the Warlocks with cursing but he's still very good. Creatures are obviously good but you can do A LOT of damage with Ghoul Rot, Chains of Agony, and Mage Bane if you can keep em on your opponent(just carry two copies of each and destroy that Mage Wand.) Then they have to split attention dealing with your creatures and your curses. If you can Drain Soul the enemy mage they are flat out screwed cause those Taint markers mean they're taking damage from your Poison Mastery power too.

[Cnoedel]

I consider Idol of Pestilence in every Necro book, his poison immunty trait is just to good!

So PoisonNecro deserves a place too?

[silverclawgrizzly]

Well I'd call it Poison/Curse Necro but yeah.

[Battlehamster]

Not sure about swarms being top notch builds for anybody. There are so many counters easily included to counter.

[Marhem]

I'm not so sure, a necro swarm is amazing when every turn he casts zombie frenzie on the opposite side of the arena.

[Cnoedel]

Zombie frenzy is awesome and i can not think of a good counter besides of WizardControl and playing ONE BIG DUDE and most swarmbooks also include named dude to be able to counter it. What other coutners did you think of?

[silverclawgrizzly]

Swarms can work with Beast Master and Necromancer you just need to know the timing and pacing. Obviously you should know the counters and be prepared to in turn counter them. It's all about knowing your opponents tricks as well.

[barriecritzer]

Druids should definitely be on that list, honestly vines are one of the strongest abilities in the game in my opinion

[Cnoedel]

Would someone agree to this? What makes vines that good? My problem with the Druid is that, while she might be super strong, she has two weak spots:

1.Her vulnerability against fire/flame (Adramelech Warlock is going to be her Nemesis!)

2. Needing LoS to use her vines

She seems a bit slow too, but maybe someone may correct me on my points!

[silverclawgrizzly]

I would agree the Druid is very powerful, no other mage can strip you of your equipment faster or more effectively. Her Conjuration plants like Corrosive Orchid also go right through Block with their attacks. Her vines make Fast and Elusive worthless unless you fly and she's got the same access to excellent buff enhancements as the Beast Master.

One tactic that can work with her is to set up a kill zone much like a Hydra packing Wizard will do. But with her you use her Orchids and have them all attack at once hopefully corroding any armor the target has and damaging them before a nasty creature hits to finish the combo. Tangle Vines can also hold you in place and make you waste Teleports.

[sdougla2]

Well, except for only being allowed to have 1 Corrosive Orchid in a zone. You can only have one object of each name attached to each object/zone. This includes equipment, enchantments, and conjurations. So you can have a Corrosive Orchid and a Nightshade Lotus in a zone, but not 2 Corrosive Orchids.

[klaymen]

Would someone agree to this? What makes vines that good?

Judging by the rules, Etherian Lifetree increases life of the vines to 3, since they are living conjurations, which can make them more outrageous in a DvN fight or more annoying in other matchup (ignoring the fact that the Lifetree helps your opponent as well).

[silverclawgrizzly]

Well, except for only being allowed to have 1 Corrosive Orchid in a zone. You can only have one object of each name attached to each object/zone. This includes equipment, enchantments, and conjurations. So you can have a Corrosive Orchid and a Nightshade Lotus in a zone, but not 2 Corrosive Orchids.

I should have worded that better, you are of course correct.

[Schwenkgott]

Codex Supplement Page 24:

"Vine markers are “fragile”. Even if a Vine marker gains life from another effect, one point of damage will still destroy it."